Our climate is not like that of the West Indies, where one lives with open doors all the year round, or even some parts of the United States, as Southern California, Florida and the Southern States, where nature does the greater part of the warming process for her human children. In the North, persons pass from the cold of a sharp winter's day out of doors to rooms in which the air is often "parched" with dry heat, or "steamed" like a Russian bath, or close with gas and smoke, and then there is wonder at the dry cough that becomes chronic with them. It is bad to sleep in a hot room, but it is worse still to sleep in an in- tensely cold bed-room without any means of heating, when we are flushed and the pores of our skin are open by the heat of an over- warm sitting-room. All these questions belong to the building of a house, and should be well considered before the building of it is commenced. Health before ease, utility before ornament, comfort before luxury', arc the fundamental principles which should guide the house builder. Let him look to these and secure perfect interior comfort and convenience, and ornament and decoration will come afterward. Some people be- gin all their enterprises at the wrong end and waste half their lives in trying to get perfection out of a bad design. No supplemental 376 THE hearthstone; or, life at home. building of extra rooms ever compensates for blunders in the main edifice. For the benefit of those who are intending to build houses of their own, the following designs and descriptions have been specially prepared and are offered to readers of " The Hearthstone : " This design (No. i) is a good illustration of the effect possible to be attained by the use of a few bold lines and projections with but very little conventional detail. The roof of the original front building was destroyed by fire, leaving the walls intact. The problem was, to restore the essential loss, to make a bolder picture than the old one, and, if possible, at the same time to avoid an extraordinary expense. This was attempted without altering the ground lines or the old wall openings. An entirely new roof treatment was adopted ; one result is, excellent rooms in the third story, and another an external effect which was a surprise as well as a pleasure to all interested. The roof covering is of red and black slates, and the walls were painted to harmonize, so that the color emphasizes the effect of light and shade. It is scarcely possible to do full justice, in an engraving in black and white, to this combination of light, shade, color and outline. Cost, ^0,000. The design of the house illustrated by this drawing (No. 2) was pre- pared at the instance of a capitalist in the western part of Pennsylva- nia, who wishes to improve an eligible tract of land near a large city. It is his hope to build a number of such houses to rent to families of moderate income, whose business will permit them to pay ^400 or ^500 rental per annum. The location is such as to require the entrance to face to the northwest, which accounts for the somewhat peculiar arrangement of the kitchen wing. The suggestion to build the first story of brick or stone comes from the prevailing feeling in every architect's mind which leads him to avoid the use of wood near the ground. It must be admitted that wood is the cheaper.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Our climate is not like that of the West Indies, where one lives with open doors all the year round, or even some parts of the United States, as Southern California, Florida and the Southern States, where nature does the greater part of the warming process for her human children. In the North, persons pass from the cold of a sharp winter's day out of doors to rooms in which the air is often "parched" with dry heat, or "steamed" like a Russian bath, or close with gas and smoke, and then there is wonder at the dry cough that becomes chronic with them. It is bad to sleep in a hot room, but it is worse still to sleep in an intensely cold bed-room without any means of heating, when we are flushed and the pores of our skin are open by the heat of an overwarm sitting-room. All these questions belong to the building of a house, and should be well considered before the building of it is commenced. Health before ease, utility before ornament, comfort before luxury', arc the fundamental principles which should guide the house builder. Let him look to these and secure perfect interior comfort and convenience, and ornament and decoration will come afterward. Some people begin all their enterprises at the wrong end and waste half their lives in trying to get perfection out of a bad design. No supplemental 376 THE hearthstone; or, life at home. building of extra rooms ever compensates for blunders in the main edifice. For the benefit of those who are intending to build houses of their own, the following designs and descriptions have been specially prepared and are offered to readers of " The Hearthstone : " This design (No. i) is a good illustration of the effect possible to be attained by the use of a few bold lines and projections with but very little conventional detail. The roof of the original front building was destroyed by fire, leaving the walls intact. The problem was, to restore the essential loss, to make a bolder picture than the old one, and, if possible, at the same time to avoid an extraordinary expense. This was attempted without altering the ground lines or the old wall openings. An entirely new roof treatment was adopted ; one result is, excellent rooms in the third story, and another an external effect which was a surprise as well as a pleasure to all interested. The roof covering is of red and black slates, and the walls were painted to harmonize, so that the color emphasizes the effect of light and shade. It is scarcely possible to do full justice, in an engraving in black and white, to this combination of light, shade, color and outline. Cost, ^0,000. The design of the house illustrated by this drawing (No. 2) was prepared at the instance of a capitalist in the western part of Pennsylvania, who wishes to improve an eligible tract of land near a large city. It is his hope to build a number of such houses to rent to families of moderate income, whose business will permit them to pay ^400 or ^500 rental per annum. The location is such as to require the entrance to face to the northwest, which accounts for the somewhat peculiar arrangement of the kitchen wing. The suggestion to build the first story of brick or stone comes from the prevailing feeling in every architect's mind which leads him to avoid the use of wood near the ground. It must be admitted that wood is the cheaper.

The hearthstone; or, Life at home